Vermont weighs need for legal defense fund – NIOSH: Report does not support faster line speeds

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VERMONT WEIGHS NEED FOR LEGAL DEFENSE FUND: Lawmakers in Vermont could vote as early as today whether to include in their pending mandatory GMO labeling bill a provision to allow individuals to donate to a fund that would help pay for implementation and legal defense of the measure. Should the state’s Senate Appropriations Committee vote H 112 out, it would head next to the Senate floor for a final vote.

Unlike mandatory GMO labeling laws passed by Connecticut and Maine, Vermont’s bill does not contain a trigger clause that prevents it from being implemented unless a certain number of other states with certain size populations also pass GMO labeling laws. But lawmakers are weighing a provision that would require the state to raise a certain amount of money to help defend it from lawsuits before the law is implemented, Dave Murphy, head of Food Democracy Now, tells MA. The presence or lack of such a trigger clause is unlikely to hurt the bill’s chances of passage before the legislative session in Montpelier ends in early May, he adds.

“Anything can happen on any given day…but I would say Vermont is lined up for passage,” Murphy said.

START YOUR ENGINES: In Washington, D.C., the race is now on for advocates of a federal voluntary GMO labeling standard to get a bill passed before various states, like Vermont, pass their own mandatory labeling standards. Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) introduced HR 4432 — just such a bill — yesterday to considerable applause from the food, agriculture and biotechnology industries. It would rest the ultimate preemptive authority on GMO labeling with the FDA, which has already said it doesn’t view biotechnology as a food safety concern and thinks GMO labeling should be voluntary. More on Pompeo’s HR 4432 from yours truly is available on POLITICO: http://politi.co/1erSJxT

A few of the comments MA came across:

-- Martin Barbre, National Corn Growers Association: “The introduction of the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act was an important first step to restoring sanity to America’s food labeling laws… A federal solution on GMO labeling will bolster consumer confidence in the safety of American food, while giving farmers and food producers the certainty we need to continue providing safe, affordable food for America’s families.”

-- Ray Gaesser, American Soybean Association: “This bill is a commonsense, science-based approach to an issue we realize is close to the hearts and minds of so many consumers. Americans want to know that their food is safe, and the solutions proposed in this bill will ensure that they have that information.” http://bit.ly/1hC3AVY

-- Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation: “Since there is no reason for Congress and the FDA to require mandatory labels on foods produced through GMOs, we need this approach instead: clarifying how companies can voluntarily label their products in a way that reduces confusion at the consumer level.” http://bit.ly/1kLU1HS

But not everyone had positive things to say:

-- Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine): "This bill is nothing but an attempt by chemical companies like Monsanto and giant food industry players to stop grassroots efforts around the country to require GMO labeling. Citizen legislatures like ours in Maine have passed laws saying consumers have the right to know what kind of food they are buying, but this bill would reverse those efforts and block those laws."

-- Scott Faber, Environmental Working Group, on the bill’s chances of passage: A measure that “preempt states from giving consumers the right to know has about as much chance in the Senate as a snowball in Sarasota [Florida]. This bill is dead on arrival.”

-- Colin O’Neil, Center for Food Safety: “Unfortunately Mr. Pompeo is signing away the rights of all Americans to know what’s in their food.”

PINGREE TALKS RAW MILK POLITICS: Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) is getting some pushback from the dairy industry after co-sponsoring two bills to relax the legal restrictions on the interstate sale of raw milk, but she says her support for the issue is driven by dairy farmers and consumers in her state, which has a licensing program that allows dairies to sell unpasteurized milk in grocery stores.

“If a state has similar legal requirements, why can’t you be allowed to sell cross state lines?” Pingree said in a recent interview with MA. “In my home state, we don’t get a lot of pushback from the dairy producers,” Pingree added, explaining that many small dairies sell raw milk on the side for extra income. “We’d have a lot of pushback from our constituents if we weren’t supporting of [these bills].”

In case you missed it, here is Pro’s Tarini Parti’s article on the legislation that would allow raw milk to travel and be sold across state lines: http://politico.pro/1hiOeuC

NIOSH — REPORT DOES NOT SUPPORT FASTER LINE SPEEDS: “The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is calling out the Department of Agriculture for ‘misinterpreting’ its report and using its findings to push for a controversial poultry inspection overhaul,” reports Pro’s Parti.

The controversy stems from a recent blog post by USDA’s Al Almanza, head of the Food Safety and Inspection Service, which pointed to the NIOSH evaluation of a plant in South Carolina to support the agency’s claims that increasing line speeds would not affect worker safety. In a letter sent to the FSIS administrator Monday, NIOSH Director John Howard says the food safety agency is inappropriately citing its findings. More on Parti’s story is available here for Pros: http://politico.pro/1qsW5WY

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IDAHO DEFENDS AG PRODUCTION FACILITY PROTECTION LAW: Idaho is urging a federal judge to dismiss a challenge to its recently passed law to prohibit certain actions at agricultural production facilities in the state, arguing that claims by animal rights groups that the measure amounts to little more than an “ag-gag” law are unfounded.

“ALDF attacks a statute that it wishes had passed,” the state argues in its April 3 motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Animal Legal Defense Fund, et al., v. Otter, et al. “The statute actually passed has nothing to do with speech or employee whistleblowing. It instead proscribes quite specific forms of conduct by any person: non-employees’ entering agricultural production facilities by force, threat, misrepresentation or trespass; obtaining agricultural production facility records by similar conduct; obtaining employment at such facilities by force,” among other things. The motion to dismiss is available here: http://politico.pro/1lR7Clj

VILSACK TOUTS WHOLE FOODS’ INNER CITY EFFORTS: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told a Council on Foreign Relations audience Wednesday that he has urged Whole Foods to do more to bring fresh food access to inner city areas. Vilsack said he believes food production needs to carefully balance nutrition and food safety, the environment and economics. As a result of his efforts, the supermarket chain ultimately ended up opening a store in Detroit that is more tailored to a lower-income community and has a little less variety than a typical Whole Food location. “It’s doing really well,” Vilsack said. “People with SNAP cards are using that store.”

MA’s INSTANT OATS

-- CFTC reauthorization legislation could lead to changes in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Law, POLITICO reports: http://politico.pro/Q6ZMGl

-- Lawmakers are turning to President Obama with their concerns about EPA’s proposed Clean Water Act jurisdiction rule, DTN reports: http://bit.ly/1iyFnCv

-- Nevada’s governor is stepping in to help a rancher in a land rights dispute with the Department of Interior, Capital Press reports: http://bit.ly/1lRf0gl

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